It"s been a week since Facebook announced plans to acquire Oculus VR, makers of the Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet, for $2 billion in cash and stock. While some people are not happy that the deal has taken place, it appears that a few folks have gone well over the line with their anger.
In a post on Reddit this weekend, Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey revealed that while they expected some people to have a "negative reaction" to the Facebook acquisition, "we did not expect to be getting so many death threats and harassing phone calls that extended to our families." The message did not get into specifics on which employees and family members were targeted, but for obvious reasons Luckey called the personal attacks "unwarranted", especially for the threats that went after people who don"t even work at the company.
Some of the anger about the Oculus VR-Facebook deal centers on the fact that the Oculus Rift helmet got its initial funding via a Kickstarter fund raising campaign. Many people have posted their displeasure about Facebook buying the company on the Oculus Rift Kickstarter comments page. One person wrote, "Facebook is not evil, it"s a company. A company that invested 2 billion dollars in Oculus. Don"t fool us. Even if you don"t admit it today, you"ve lost your freedom. You"ve lost your soul."
However, Luckey wrote that despite these kinds of comments, the Facebook acquisition was the best thing for Oculus VR, stating, "We know we will prove ourselves with actions and not words." The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014.